Make You a New Heart and a New Spirit (Ezekiel 18:31)

2023-12-31

Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 18:31)

The chapter tells us two things: The first is that the son and the father will die in their own sins and not for each other’s. The second is that if the righteous turns from his righteousness, he will die, and if the wicked turns from his sins, he will live.

The original context is for the coming judgment on Jerusalem. However, there is a larger problem that needs to be dealt with. The warning is that the people need a new heart and new spirit, and they must make these for themselves. This should call for a cry to the LORD to save by grace for certain judgment. Ezekiel 18 condemns everyone, leaving them to procure something they cannot.

This is why later, we read this: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). The LORD provides the new heart and the new spirit. And if that were not sufficient, He gives us His Spirit. Now we can walk in His statutes and judgments. Trust in Him that His Spirit can do all those things in us and through us.